Finger millet (Ragi) is a small seeded, light brown to brick red colored minor cereal. It is a good source of carbohydrates, sulfur amino acids, dietary fiber and micronutrients and is the richest source of calcium among the cereals. Most of the millet produced is—pulverized and the whole meal is utilized for preparation of traditional Indian foods such as unleavened pancakes (roti) and thick porridge or dumpling (mudde) A small proportion is utilized to prepare popped and malt foods also. Epidemiological reports indicate that, regular consumption of the millet reduces incidences of diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases, duodenal ulcer and other gastrointestinal tract related disorders. The millet is not amenable for cooking in the form of grains similar to rice, because, the seed coat of the millet grains is not removed and the seed coat not only affects the cooking quality but also its eating quality. Hence, the millet is always pulverized and the flour is used for food preparation and never cooked in the grain form. The endosperm of the millet is of floury texture but it is covered with the rigid seed coat. Since, the seed coat is firmly attached to the endosperm, both the endosperm and the seed coat fragment together to fine grits and flour during decortication or milling. Hence, efforts to decorticate the millet by hitherto known processes have not been successful. Therefore, the whole grain millet is pulverized and the meal is utilized for various food preparations. The pulverized seed coat imparts dark color, coarse fibrous texture and characteristic odor to the millet foods. These factors not only affect the nutritional quality of the millet products but also hinder their acceptability, especially by the non-traditional millet consumers.
Reference may be made to P. P. Kurien and H. S. R. Desikachar {Refining of millet flours-1. Ragi (Eleusine coracana). Journal of Food Science (Mysore), Vol. 11, 136–137, 1962}, wherein, the millet was steamed for about 2 min. moistened with 5% additional water, pulverized in Wiley mill and the meal was sifted through 250 n screen, to prepare a flour with a lower proportion of husk (seed coat) content.
Reference may also be made to P. P. Kurien and H. S. R. Desikachar {Preparation of a refined white flour from ragi (Eleusine coracana) using a laboratory mill. Journal of Food, Science and Technology, Vol. 3, 56–58, 1966}, wherein, moist-conditioning and milling the millet in laboratory wheat mill was effective for preparation of refined millet flour (the flour containing very low levels of seed coat).
The millet kernels were hardened by soaking in water at 65° C. for 3 hr. steaming for 30 min at atmospheric pressure and drying the same. The wet heat treatment enabled to prepare grits {H. S. R. Desikachar, Effect of wet heat treatment on the culinary qualities of ragi (Eleusine coracana). Journal of Food Science and Technology, Vol. 9, 149–150, 1972}. However, the seed coat was intact with the grits and affected the culinary and the sensory qualities of the foods prepared from the grits.
Wet heat treatment comprising of soaking the rough rice or paddy (Oriza saliva) in water, followed by steaming and drying, (parboiling), hardens the rice endosperm, heals, the cracks and improves its milling efficiency by minimizing the breakage during dehusking and debranning. This treatment to rice has also been shown to enhance its nutritional quality by increased retention of thiamine, minerals besides, improves the texture of cooked rice by reducing the stickiness also (K. R. Bhattacharya and S. Z. AH, Changes in rice during parboiling and properties of parboiled rice. In: Advances in Cereal Science and Technology, Vol. 7, 105–167,1985).
Likewise, hardening the endosperm of soft wheat by wet heat treatment (Bulgar wheat) is practiced to prepare large grits or wheat cracks from soft wheat (A. W. Suhasini and N. G. Malleshi, Studies on preparation, popping and functional properties of bulgar wheat. Die Nahrung, Vol. 38, 568–577, 1994).
One drawback of the hitherto-followed millet milling processes is that, these methods form grits and flour from the millet instead of decorticated millet grains. The process followed for milling of wet heat treated rice and wheat can not be applied to finger millet because, the morphology of millet kernels (smaller size, spherical shape and intactness of the seed coat with the endosperm) differs from that of rice (the husk that covers the rice is a separate entity which is loosely attached with the inner caryopsis) and wheat (bigger grain with thin multiple layers of seed coat, namely, the bran is separable easily). Hence, generally the millet grains are pulverized and the whole meal millet is utilized for food. This limits the usage of the millet only to flour based traditional foods such as roti and mudde, typically by traditional consumers, and not in the form similar to cooked rice or wheat semolina.
Another drawback of the hitherto-known millet milling processes is that, foods based on whole meal happens to be sticky and slimy and also have a characteristic odor. These factors affect the sensory qualities and in turn the acceptability of the millet products.
Thus, neither a process for decortication of millet nor a decorticated finger millet are commercially available in any part of the world to the best of the Applicant's knowledge.
One aspect of the present invention provides a decorticated finger millet.
Another aspect of the present invention provides a decorticated finger millet having the physicochemical characteristics described below.
A further aspect of the present invention provides a process for preparation of decorticated finger millet.
Still another aspect of the present invention provide a process for preparation of decorticated finger millet, that can be cooked similar to rice or can be pulverized to prepare grits or flour similar to wheat for various food uses.